MORE T-2s LEAVINGPosted Wednesday, April 24 2002 at 1515 h MDTPaul Z noted on the list that DRGW 5345 and 5405 left Denver today on MNYGR-24. This is in addition to 5409 and 5372, which left in the earlier part of the week on MNYNP, and 5353, 5386, and 5406 that left on Sunday, 21-Apr. This leaves only three T-2s in the Burnham dead lines - 5347, 5360, and 5361. Expect these to leave shortly. - NDHolmes

TWO MORE T-2s READY TO GOPosted Monday, April 22 2002 at 0006 h MDTIt looks like UP is preparing to ship DRGW 5409 and 5372 out tomorrow night. They're both now in North Yard according to the trace, and I'll guess that they'll be on tomorrow afternoon's MNYNP-22. If anyone happens to catch them, I'd appreciate any photos to add to my new photo trip report of the departing Grande deadlines. I have no idea who the buyer(s) is/are yet, but as soon as I find out anything I'll let everyone know. - NDHolmes

DEAD T-2s ON THE MOVEPosted Sunday, April 21 2002 at 0908 h MDTDRGW 5409, 5353, and 5386 have been moved from the dead lines at Burnham to North Yard, and I assume they'll be on MNYNP tonight (21-Apr-2002). Presumably they've been sold, but no word as to who bought them yet. Thanks to Frank K. for pointing this out. Update (4/21 - 2350h): CORRECTION - it's not 5409 that's moving, it's 5406. The three went north tonight (21-Apr) on MNYNP, spliced by a dead UP SD40-2. I was there to catch them, and I've decided to start collecting the departing Rio Grandes into a new trip report, posted here. Enjoy! - NDHolmes

NEW SIGNALS CUT IN ON THE MOFFATPosted Saturday, April 20 2002 at 1004 h MDTJoe McMillan reported to the D&RGW list that the new signal system has been cut over between East Cliff and West Plain on the Moffat Route today, 17-Apr-2002. The main was taken out of service at 0700h, and thanks to UP signalling personal from throughout the area, the entire segment was reopened with new signals at 1800h the same day. - NDHolmes

LAST SD45 GONE AND OTHER ROSTER CHANGESPosted Thursday, April 18 2002 at 0831 h MDTDRGW 5326, the last surviving original D&RGW SD45, was removed from Englewood Yard in Texas earlier this week, and was interchanged at the infamous Valjct, IL, late Tuesday (16-Apr-2002). Travelling with it was UP8610 (ex-DRGW 5352), which was also dead and heading to the scrapper. No word on who bought them yet, but my guess is Cycle Systems of Roanoke, VA. In other news, SP 5378 (ex-DRGW 5378) was repainted to UP 8577 sometime Tuesday (16-Apr) at Jenks, and DRGW 5390 has been returned to Helper, UT, after a rather long tour including Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Utah. - NDHolmes

DRGW CABOOSE 01501 IN COLO SPRGSPosted Sunday, April 14 2002 at 2116 h MDTDRGW 01501, the beautifully-painted caboose that was seen roaming around Denver a couple weeks back, arrived in Colorado Springs sometime in the last few days. For those that haven't seen it, I've posted photos of both sides (#1 and #2) The caboose in question was purchased from Daniel Quait by Greg Roberts, a member of the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation, and will be moved to the old CRI&P roundhouse here in Colorado Springs tomorrow (Monday, 15-Apr-2002) morning by the Colo Sprgs local job. His plans are to restore the interior, rebuild the trucks, and replace the plated-over windows - returning the caboose to near-original and yet fully operational status. It's good to see another one saved and in good hands. - NDHolmes

DRGW 5390 SOUTHBOUND ON JOINT LINEPosted Tuesday, April 9 2002 at 1347 h MDTDRGW 5390 has been released from Burnham and is scheduled to be on today's (9-Apr-2002) Denver-Pueblo manifest train. It had been in the shop with a bad air compressor, and there was some debate as to whether or not it would be fixed. Apparently it has been repaired, and should be on Denver-Pueblo for a few days while any bugs are worked out. Thanks to Paul Z. for the information. Update (4/9 - 2145h): Caught up with MDVPU today just north of Woodman Road here in the Springs, and then again down at the yard. Yes, there's also video, too! There's a good quality MPEG file (3.3MB), as well as medium (1.3MB) and small (300kB) RealPlayer files. - NDHolmes

NOTES FROM OUT AND ABOUTPosted Sunday, April 7 2002 at 1139 h MDTJust a few notes, photos, and observations from out and about Colorado yesterday (6-Apr-2002). There were two UP "Building America" units out and about Denver yesterday. One was a flared SD70M as the second unit on MNYNP-06 seen here, and the other was an AC4400CCTE serving as a mid-train DPU on a southbound coal train. Secondly, the P811 that's rebuilding the UP side of the Joint line is now working up around the Chatfield Reservoir area. Everything from Sedalia to there has been completely rebuilt, and finishing work (like picking up old rail and ballasting) is now being done. Also in the construction area, one of the Trough Train cars (BN 552006) suffered a structural failure. There's not much left of the B section sitting north of Sedalia, CO, but the rest of the car is sitting in a house track near Tomah Road south of Castle Rock, CO.As an added bonus, the train through Utah Junction immediately before MNYNP was a local job with two Grande GP40-2s on the front - 3121 and 3129. Michelle managed to catch video of these two, which I've converted to a brief MPG and posted here. (Warning - it's big at 2.5MB, but worth it) If the whole video clip thing works out, I'm going to consider adding a video section to the website. Let me know what you think and if you have any technical problems. Update (4/7 - 1315h): I've added RealPlayer formats for those with playback problems. They're not as high quality as the MPEG file above, but they're smaller and might play better on your system if you're having trouble. Here's a Low Bandwidth (380kB) and Medium Bandwidth (1.02MB) version, as well as a local mirror of the original. - NDHolmes

DRGW 3060, 3084 LEAVE FOR NRE - SILVIS, ILPosted Sunday, April 7 2002 at 1122 h MDTDRGW 3060 and 3084, both long stored in the dead lines at Burnham, departed on yesterday's MNYNP-06 (Saturday, 6-Apr-2002) from North Yard to North Platte. These two will be interchanged with the Iowa Interstate in Des Moines, IA, in a few days, where they will then move to Silvis, IL, for scrapping or rebuilding. I caught them at Utah Jct. yesterday afternoon - 3060 (#1 and #2) and 3084 (#1 and #2) - NDHolmes

DRGW 5390 EASTBOUND ON MGJNYPosted Thursday, April 4 2002 at 1346 h MSTDRGW 5390, after servicing at Roper, will be headed into Denver this afternoon/evening. It's currently sitting in Grand Junction, and the trace shows an expected departure on the MGJNY (or MGJDV, not sure which symbol is correct these days) this afternoon. No word on whether or not it's operating or what position in the consist it holds. Also, on an unrelated note, today (Thursday, 4-Apr-2002) is 180 days out from 1 Oct 2002. Amtrak, so far, has not filed discontinuance of service notices on the California Zephyr. - NDHolmes

APRIL 1923 OFFICIAL ROSTER SCAN ONLINEPosted Thursday, April 4 2002 at 1034 h MSTI've finished scanning, sizing, and posting the D&RGW/RGS 1-April-1923 Official Roster Number 11. This thing has 164 pages of all sorts of useful information - rosters, route timetables, a large color map of the system, telegraph information, wyes, turntables, stockyards, you name it... It can be found in the D&RGW Paper section over here. - NDHolmes

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